The Capone cocktail made with Templeton Rye whiskey, which is known as Al Capone's whiskey.

The Capone cocktail made with Templeton Rye whiskey, which is known as Al Capone's whiskey.

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The Shirley Templeton is a twist on a non-alcoholic drink made with Templeton Rye whiskey from Iowa.

The Shirley Templeton is a twist on a non-alcoholic drink made with Templeton Rye whiskey from Iowa.

Capone's favorite rye now in Texas

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Whiskey connoisseurs and bartenders who love rye have probably noticed there's a new gem on shelves here. Templeton Rye recently launched distribution in Texas, but its reputation as the whiskey of American gangster Al Capone preceded its arrival.

“My great-grandfather was an entrepreneur during Prohibition, as we say,” much like many other families at the time, says Scott Bush, president of Templeton, Iowa-based Templeton Rye.

“Prohibition happened. Nobody quit drinking, but the quality of spirits that were available plummeted,” Bush says. “But these farmers around Templeton continued to make their product carefully.”

Templeton became known as a high-end alternative to other products available. Eventually, it got into the hands of Capone.

“We're only a day's drive from Chicago. Soon enough Capone got wind of it and Templeton became quite famous during Prohibition,” Bush says. “They say the vast majority of what he sold was Canadian whiskey, but what he drank and what he served his friends was the good stuff from Iowa.”

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After Prohibition, Templeton was still made illicitly, but even the illegal stuff dwindled to only dozens of bottles produced a year. Remembering stories that his grandfather shared about Templeton's flagrant disregard of Prohibition, Bush, who has a business degree, thought to himself, “This cannot go away. Someone needs to bring this to life.”

He set out to find the recipe with his uncle Gus, who took him to Meryl Kerkhoff, whose father had been among the producers of Templeton. It took months for Bush to coax Kerkhoff into sharing the recipe. A partnership was formed between Bush and Kerkhoff, represented by his son, Keith, and the next hurdle was finding a distillery to produce it.

“Now, you see all these craft or small spirits makers out there. This was 10 years ago. The big distilleries back then — they wanted nothing to do with us,” Bush says.

The partners found someone at the former Seagram's distillery in Laurenceberg, Ind., who was originally from Iowa, knew about Templeton Rye's history and agreed to produce it. The rye is then barrel-aged in Templeton, where the company built its own distillery, which produces small batches of rye and other experimental products.

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It's a tribute to the brand's rich history that the company has set out to preserve.

“The thing about Templeton is because it was always illegal, there's very little documented history. ... We made a real effort to capture the oral history, which is staggering,” Bush says.

Many in Templeton's population of roughly 350 work at the distillery. In the old days, almost everyone in the town was involved in the illegal bootlegging operation, whether it was production, transportation or guarding it.

“They say one of the big runners was the local mortician,” Bush says. “They had a hearse they would fill full of whiskey kegs. If the revenuers came, they would park the car in the garage and let all the air out of the tires and put stuff over the top of it so the revenuers never saw it; it would look like an old car.

“It was very much a community effort. They say that when the raiders would come, the sheriff would put on his hat and lead them down the street to go start looking at stills. But the story was that the sheriff never wore his hat unless the raiders came.”

The first legally produced batch in 2006 yielded 68 barrels, or 4,000 cases, that were only available in Iowa. A colleague from Iowa says his cousin waited in line with hundreds of others to get those first bottles. The next year, distribution expanded to Illinois, followed by New York and California in 2010. Recently, Templeton launched into its fifth market — Texas.

“Certainly, traditionally, it's a big whiskey market,” Bush says. And he's excited to be here, especially after a recent visit to the state's four largest cities.

“We were very pleasantly surprised by the sophistication of drinkers that we found and the quality of the spots,” Bush says, especially drinkers who appreciate rye whiskey.

“The knock on ryes, though, is with all that character, oftentimes they pack a little heat with them,” he says. “The thing we hear most when people try Templeton is they smell it and taste it and they say, ‘Wow, that's really smooth.' They think with all that rye character that it's going to burn but it finishes surprisingly smooth.”

It is smooth, but that's not to say it's light on flavor. There are incredible notes of vanilla and cherries with a long finish that is intense but not hot. While it can be mixed into cocktails, Bush recommends enjoying it by itself.

“Typically for me, I will just put a couple of ice cubes in the glass, stir it around for about 10 seconds or so and then take the ice cubes out just to get a little bit of coolness and a little bit of water to open it up,” he says.

Templeton's production has grown to 60,000 cases, but the expansion has been calculated to protect the product, which includes targeting specific markets rather than a blanket 50-state approach.

“There's a reason we're only in the markets that we're in. There's a huge shortage in the rye category. ... We go in and say, ‘Look, we have been careful with our growth because we don't want to go into a market until we know we can supply it.'”

Translation: There is plenty of Templeton Rye in Texas, and that is a good thing.